It Is Never too Late to Learn: The Role of Organizational Support in Older Employees’ Learning

For last decades, lifelong-learning has been receiving growing attention as playing a crucial role in active ageing social policies. Due to numerous controversial research findings regarding older employees’ continuous learning, our work focuses on comparing older vs. younger employees in terms of their motivation (willingness) to learn and outcomes that result from learning and training processes. Our results do not show statistically significant differences in learning results of both groups of employees, neither nor in general motivation for learning. However, the results show that older employees engage in learning less to fulfil their career goals and more to improve their work efficiency as well as facilitate knowledge transfer to the workplace. The crucial role of perceived organizational support for older employees’ continuous learning and training at workplace is further discussed. Key words: workforce aging, older employees, motivation for learning, age management.

Human Resource Management in Asia

This chapter reviews key characteristics and developments of human resource management (HRM) in Asian countries against the backdrop of their rich historical features and the rapidly changing landscape on many fronts. It takes stock of what has been researched in the HRM field and the theoretical perspectives underpinning it. There is a growing trend for positivist HRM studies of hypothesized organizational conditions and individual behaviors, at the expense of in-depth qualitative studies of the motivations, actions, and interactions of social groups, and outcomes in specific organizational settings. It is clear that Asian countries are advancing at a rapid pace in their economic development, powered by growing technological competences. However, each nation-state is confronted with a different set of HRM challenges, ranging from skills shortage to workforce aging, informalization of employment, changing expectations, behavior of the workforce, and so forth. We argue that the understanding of people management in workplaces must take into account a range of institutional, cultural, organizational, and individual factors. We also argue that HRM research needs to be engaged with real and live issues that are confronting employing organizations and individuals, with the aim of adding social value and extending our intellectual horizon.

Age and job-specific skill obsolescence: the moderating effects of human resource practices

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the J-shaped relationship between age and job-specific skill obsolescence (JSSO), and the differential moderating effects of development and maintenance HR practices on this relationship.Design/methodology/approachRegression models of survey data obtained from a sample of 722 Chinese knowledge workers were used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that among women age and JSSO are J-shaped related and the relationship weakens under high development HR practices; while among men the J-shaped age-JSSO relation is significant only under low maintenance HR practices.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is subject to the cross-sectional design, and the sample is restricted to knowledge workers.Originality/valueThis study advances previous studies that hold a linear (positive or negative) age-JSSO relationship by theorizing and testing a J-shaped one. The differentiated moderating effects of two bundles of HR practices proved improves our knowledge about how to use HR practices appropriately to sustain employee work competency in the context of workforce aging.

Employer Perceptions and Responses to an Aging Workforce: Differences by Industry, Occupation, and Size

Employers are facing significant demographic changes in their workforce as the US population continues to age and older workers seek to delay retirement until later ages. The challenges associated with workforce aging vary substantially across the economy and vary by industry, occupation, and size of the organization. This analysis highlights the findings from employer surveys and workshops of senior HR leaders. The article summarizes the findings from our three-year research project including whether employers perceive that workforce aging is a challenge to their organization and if so, what changes in compensation and working conditions are being made to accommodate the changes in age structure

Human Cognitive and Motor Abilities in the Aging Workforce: An Information-Based Model

In the digital society, individuals are in charge of performing tasks based on the information gathered by huge amount of data and effectively use them to manifest their cognitive and motor abilities. In this paper, on the basis of experimental studies available in literature concerning lab tests on motor or cognitive abilities of differently aged subjects, an information-based theoretical model is proposed. The model allows to quantify the information content of a motor or a cognitive task and provides estimates of information processing time of individuals of different age and sex in accomplishing tasks with prevalent motor or cognitive nature, in spite of the fact that a “pure” cognitive or a “pure” motor task are rarely observed in practical cases. The model is then applied to a case study from automotive industry in which workforce aging phenomenon is experienced. Potential applications of the model go beyond the case study developed. Quantifying the information content of a general motor-cognitive task paves the way to new understanding and modelling of movements and performance time of both natural and artificial systems with applications in industrial robotics (e.g., human-robot cooperation), biomechanics, and neurorehabilitation.

The Proactive Shift in Managing an Older Workforce 2009–2017: A Latent Class Analysis of Organizational Policies

Background and Objectives Longitudinal perspectives on how organizations react to workforce aging are missing in the literature. In this study, we fill this gap and ask how organizations deal with older workers, how their approaches change over time, and in which sectors of the economy and types of organizations the changes were most profound. Research Design and Methods Data come from two large-scale employer surveys: 2009 (n = 1,077) and 2017 (n = 1,358), representative for the Netherlands. We use a three-step group-comparison latent class analysis combined with a multinomial logistic model. Results We found four clusters of organizations based on their practices regarding older workers—those trying to activate and develop their employees (active), focusing solely on exit measures (exit), implementing a combination of development, accommodating and exit measures (all), and practicing no age management (none). We find a major shift in employers’ approaches to aging workforces between 2009 and 2017, with strong decreases in those that offered no age management (47%–30%) and those focusing on exit measures (21%–6%), and an increase in active organizations (19%–52%). Active age management is no longer concentrated in large and developing organizations, but has become a standard human resources tool economy-wide. Discussion and Implications Overall, there is a long-term trend away from exit measures toward the application of proactive age management measures. More involvement of employers in retaining older adults in the workplace may signal a growing awareness of the changing demographic reality.

How Are Employers Responding to an Aging Workforce?

The American population is aging and changes in the population’s age structure are leading to an aging of the nation’s workforce. In addition, changes to age-specific participation rates are exacerbating the aging of the national labor force. An important challenge for firms and organizations is how does workforce aging affect labor costs, productivity, and the sustainability of the organization. This article examines employer responses to workforce aging, including changes to retirement policies, modification in working conditions, adoption of phased retirement plans, and reforming other employee benefits.